A Guide to Spain

**The Useless Member** · January 14, 2012, 06:35 PM

Plus, the "jumping around Africa," Whenever I do that, the dumb Barbary States gives Tunis to Savoy for some reason.

**Baker2** · January 18, 2012, 10:41 AM

How is it one of the pics shows Spain's Line Infantry are yellow in colour? That a mod?

**=Prince Nuada=** · March 26, 2012, 01:24 AM

I am playing as Spain.
Right now it is 1705 and I have completed the mission in America – New Spain is mine!

I made 2 important trades in turn 1:
•I traded Flanders to the Dutch for Cuaco (this avoided war, gave me a barracks in the Caribbean to train Line Infantry and easily fullfilled the 1st of my 3 mission objectives)
•I traded Florida to the British for Jamaica (this gave me another barracks to train Line Infantry and meant that I no-longer had to worry about defending Florida against the natives or Louisiana.

As I had plenty of Line Infantry in the Caribbean (as well as Spanish Galleons!), I easily captured my other 2 objectives and I have a strong force to conquer the rest of the Americas!

**erlyield** · August 24, 2012, 02:00 AM

Time Out is the best for specific "Barcelona" most up-to-date restaurant info. Covers everything else, but Eyewitness is better for Architecture. published here

**Wesleyan** · February 10, 2013, 06:55 AM

The last few times I have played as Spain, I cannot click on any of the towns or farms in Naples after the first turn - nothing except the city. I can't figure out why, and so I just sell Naples to the Italian States.

If I put troops in my ports, Britain - assuming they attack me early on - will take Sardinia. Otherwise they will take Gibraltar, after which if I have enough troops I can destroy them. Then again, having British troops tied up on an island is no very bad thing.

**Davidgamer** · July 12, 2013, 06:38 PM

IS IT WEIRD to attack France in the first few years and if it is not weird should i recruit all of the units form Flanders

**tman13** · September 23, 2014, 09:28 AM

This is true, however I did sometimes find it hard to defend all my possessions in the Americas

**poa** · September 23, 2014, 10:42 AM

Originally Posted by Wesleyan

The last few times I have played as Spain, I cannot click on any of the towns or farms in Naples after the first turn - nothing except the city. I can't figure out why, and so I just sell Naples to the Italian States.

If I put troops in my ports, Britain - assuming they attack me early on - will take Sardinia. Otherwise they will take Gibraltar, after which if I have enough troops I can destroy them. Then again, having British troops tied up on an island is no very bad thing.

its cheaper to guard a port with an indiaman in port, 50 pesetas per turn,
in addition AI have a hard time landing within the control zone of that indiaman.
It works well to prevent GB from slinking into Mediterranean by stationing a fleet right in the gibraltar strait,
it prevent any ship movement except yours

**Nivea for Men** · December 12, 2014, 10:31 AM

Nice guide!

**Don Massey** · December 23, 2014, 05:38 AM

What difficulty was this guide written for? Easy? There are some problems here.

First of all Portugal is not peaceful. There are probably going to be games where it doesn't attack you, but Portugal does have the capacity to attack you. This guide tells you its a quiet neighbor. That is wrong. Like other minor factions Portugal will build stacks of units, and its one massive fleet can devastate your fleets and trade if they are too scattered. This guide tells you that Madrid doesn't need defending, so if you follow it and Portugal does attack you'll be in trouble. In my games I had to give them regions in order to stave off defeat. This guide would have your armies meddling in Africa while your capital itself is threatened. Bad idea. You don't have to defeat Portugal at first but you need to at least guard against it. They will grow fairly powerful if left alone so have them defeated by the mid game. Even if Portugal's AI isn't very aggressive though in my experience it is, they are allied with Britain. Conflict is likely, don't let it be a thorn in your side.

The Barbary Pirates aren't very threatening either. All of Europe is at war with them, so every other European navy in the Mediterranean will fight them alongside you. Only at first will they really be a problem. When the minor factions in Italy and their freakishly large navies start attacking them they won't be a significant threat anymore. Also capturing their galleys can be a good source of income. Even better you can add it to your fleet. This allows you to quickly build up a large fleet. Auto resolve will treat these galleys as stronger than they really are, so your fleet can dominate the Mediterranean in the early game quickly and easily. I still recommend attacking Morocco, but don't waste your time in Africa. Go for the Dutch instead.

This guide doesn't place a great emphasis on getting New Spain. You should try to get it as early as possible. You need the money and New Spain gets weaker as the game goes on. The Native Americans can take regions, and other European countries that are at war with you can take regions. In my game Britain took Columbia which then became Gran Columbia. They were annoying the whole game because they were stronger than my armies in New Spain. Don't let that happen.

Basically this guide assumes for some reason that no one will attack you. If you follow this guide you might end up in a defensive war on seven fronts. Countries will attack you and you always need to be ready to defend against them. Britain, Portugal, the Native Americans, and eventually Austria are especially dangerous. Always guard your regions. Spain has a lot of regions and it'll be awhile before you've conquered enough to make regions safe. In fact the more you conquer the more enemies you open up.